Regulation (EU) 2016/1012 lays down zootechnical and genealogical rules for trade in breeding animals and their germinal products, and for their entry into the Union, including rules for the issuing of zootechnical certificates for those commodities. Article 30(4) of that Regulation provides that where breeding animals that have been entered in a breeding book maintained by a breed society or registered in a breeding register maintained by a breeding operation, or their germinal products, are traded and where those breeding animals, or the offspring produced from those germinal products, are intended to be entered or registered in another breeding book or breeding register, those breeding animals, or their germinal products, are to be accompanied by a zootechnical certificate.

Article 30(5) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1012 also provides that where breeding animals that have been entered in a breeding book or registered in a breeding register maintained by a breeding body included in the list provided for in Article 34 of that Regulation, or their germinal products, enter the Union and where those breeding animals, or the offspring produced from those germinal products, are intended to be entered in a breeding book maintained by a breed society or registered in a breeding register maintained by a breeding operation, those breeding animals, or their germinal products, are to be accompanied by a zootechnical certificate.

The zootechnical certificate provided for in Article 30 of Regulation (EU) 2016/1012 shall only be issued by the breed society, breeding operation or competent authority of dispatch of the breeding animals or of the germinal products thereof, when those consignments are traded within the Union, or by the breeding body or official service of the third country of dispatch, when those consignments enter the Union.

In addition, Article 31(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1012 provides that the competent authority may authorise that germinal products are to be accompanied by a zootechnical certificate issued, on the basis of the information received from the breed society or breeding operation, by a semen collection or storage centre, or by an embryo collection or production team, approved for intra-Union trade in those germinal products in accordance with Union animal health legislation.

Article 30(6) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1012 specifies that zootechnical certificates are to contain the information set out in the relevant Parts and Chapters of Annex V to that Regulation and comply with the corresponding model forms of zootechnical certificates provided for in implementing acts adopted by the Commission.

Therefore, it is necessary to establish model forms for the zootechnical certificates that are to accompany consignments of breeding animals and their germinal products when those consignments are traded within the Union or when they enter the Union.

Article 31(3) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1012 provides that where the results of performance testing or genetic evaluation are publicly available on a website, a reference to that website where those results can be accessed may be provided in the zootechnical certificate instead of indicating those results in the zootechnical certificate. That possibility should be reflected in the model forms of zootechnical certificates established by this Regulation.

Article 32(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1012 provides that in the case of purebred breeding animals of the equine species, the information set out in Chapter I of Part 2 of Annex V to that Regulation is to be contained in a single lifetime identification document for equidae and it also provides for the Commission to adopt delegated acts concerning the content and format of such identification documents. Therefore, it is not necessary for this Regulation to establish a model form of zootechnical certificate for trade in purebred breeding animals of the equine species.

This Regulation should be applicable from 1 November 2018 in accordance with the date of application provided for in Regulation (EU) 2016/1012.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Zootechnics,